The Story Of Soldiers

Chapter 13

Warning(s): near panic attack, lots of fluff and kissing that might make you feel touch starved, tones of pet names, smoking,

"Ma'am?" Kamlyn asked timidly during class one day as the teacher paused to let the trainees take notes on the lesson.
"Yes, 887?" She hummed, looking down at the boy.
"How did they keep going?"

"Pardon?" The teacher probed further, the vague question doing nothing to help her understand.
"I mean, how did the soldiers keep going when though they were betrayed? How could they not give up after something like that?"

The teacher smiled softly at him, giving her answer, "Hope. They had hope, even after the betrayal."
Kamlyn tilted his head to the side, "Does hope help with war or battle? They still lost anyways."

The woman smiled softly and nodded her head, "Yes. Hope does help. It is true they lost the battle, but the hope lead to winning the war."
The teams eyes shone, and Aayan seemed to copy this down in his notes again.

Later, during the same class, they'd been told of yet another team whod been betrayed. This one failed, even though they had hope.
Kira was confused, and of course had asked about it.

"Hope may be necessary," the teacher began, "And they had plenty of it. However, they were a but too confident. There's a fine line between confident and cocky, and they were cocky. Expected to win the war just because of their hope, they thought hope was all they needed. They got sloppy, and were masacaerd in the end."

Kaze's eyes widened at the last part. Was this something that could happen to them? What was the training even for? Would their training go to waste? Would they even make it past training.

It all came crashing down on the boy at once when he heard those words, terror momentarily filling his senses. Aayan placed a gentle hand on Kaze's arm, concern painting his eyes.
"You okay?" He asked.

"Fine," Kaze said as he forced an emotionless voice. Just like Ezra had always done. Like Ezra had taught him to do when speaking with their father.
Kaze couldn't recall why Ezra didn't show any emotion, especially around their father, but he was almost sure it wasn't good. He felt the sudden urge to rub at the ring he'd been given.

He didn't know why, because it had come out of no where, but he needed to hold the ring again as soon as he could.
The rest of the day passed in a blur to him, as he barley managed to take notes of the other lectures as he tried to stop the thoughts of his brother from flooding his mind.

Later that night, in their dorms, Kaze had done exactly what he'd thought of earlier. Quickly, he reached under the mattress and pulled out the ring to rub at the silver and hold it close, ignoring the looks he got from the others in the process.

Lights out had been called, but Kaze didn't let go of the ring and crawled into bed with it still clutched in his hand.
As he drifted off, he wondered to himself about what Ezra might be doing at the same moment.

-meanwhile-

Ezra woke with a gasp, the air torn from his lungs, hand pressed into his chest to try and bring oxygen into his lungs.
His chest heaved and he doubled over, arms wrapping around his stomach.

The panic was still prominent and heavy in his stomach, a mix of sickness and fear bubbling in his belly.
"Ugh, Ez, why are you up?" Came the groan from his partner from beside him.

"R-ra," Ezra tried to say, but was cut off as he began to cough wildly, "Ray-."
He hardly choked out the last word, and the woman turned to turn on the beside lamp before turning back to her lover.

Ray wrapped her slim arms around Ezra, her olive skin splattered with spots of caucasian.
Ezra whimpered and curled into her, burying his face in her hair, which was dyed multiple different shades of color.

Ray hushed him gently, a soft hand running up and down his arm.
"Ezra, baby, calm down. You're safe, you're not there anymore. You're with me, far away, remember?"

"Tell me five things you can see. You can do that, can't you honey?"
Ezra swallowed thickly and pulled away to see the room, nodding and trying to find five things he could see.
"Y-you, t-the bed, th-the pictures, wind-dows, a-and the flo-or..."

"Good. Four things you can feel?"
"Y-your hand, m-y hand, the matt-ress, an-d the s-heets."

"Alright, good, three things you can hear?"
Ezra tried to listen, his nerves frazzled as he hiccuped and glanced around nervously.
Ray cooed softly and cupped his cheek, pressing a comforting peck to his lips.

"Shh, shh, baby. Listen, tell me three things you can hear when you're ready, alright sweetie?"
Ezra nodded mutely, black eyes contracted as he tried his hardest to listen, cheek pressed to Ray's head for comfort again.

Ray smiled softly at the action, but didn't bother to mention, and gods forbid retaliate.
Ezra was always calmed quickest by something soft against his skin, which was the main reason they went through so much conditioner.

Ray would always be sure to use plenty of it, and put lotion on often to keep her skin soft as well.
This was also because Ezra was quite prone to panic attacks, and had them often, and the softness brought him a form of comfort during times of distress.

Ray hummed a soft tune, neither of them sure what it was or where it came from, as it was just a random tune the girl came up with on the spot.
"T-the song, the f-an, a-and the c-cloc-ck," Ezra finally managed.

Ray hummed and nodded, "Good. Come on, now two things you can smell, babe."
Ezra took in a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. "Your shampoo a-and the d-etergent."
"Good," she cooed.

Ezra sighed softly, finally calming down. Ray lifted his chin gently with her finger, and pressed a kiss to his chapped lips.
After a few minutes or so of gentle kissing and calming the man down later, Ezra pulled away and got out of bed.

Ray followed suit, grabbing the pack of cigarettes from the bedside drawer.
"Not yet," she snapped as her boyfriend reached for the pack himself, pulling it out of his reach, "You need to drink something first."

Ray took Ezra's hand in her own, smaller one, and lead him out to the kitchen.
Ezra stumbled slightly, still sleepy, but leaned on Ray for support as she got two half-full glasses of water from the sink.

Ray gave one of the glasses to him, which he drunk quickly, as did the woman.
"Good boy," Ray said teasingly, which made Ezra go red. It was a good thing he'd already finished his water.

"Come outside," Ray invited, leading her boyfriend out to the back porch of their house.
Ezra had hurriedly taken a cigarette from the pack, and Ray didn't stop him. She smiled and took one for herself, pulling out her lighter.

"Are you okay after that?"
"Mhm," Ezra hummed in response, blowing out a puff of smoke.
"You know it wasn't your fault," Ray told him in a flat tone. Ezra shrugged.
"I'd like to think so."

"It wasn't. You were a kid, and you got hurt. It wasn't your fault. It was his."
Ezra flinched slightly, but nodded all the same as he took another breath of the whispy smoke.

"I just feel like a monster, after what I did. I don't know how I could've done that," Ezra confided, tears starting to make their ways down his cheeks as he continued to smoke.
"You're not a monster," Ray said softly, "You're not. You're my wonderful, loving boyfriend."

"How do you know that?"
"I know that, because you're mine."
Ezra went pink, and looked down as he finished off the cigarette.
Ray chuckled at that, and put out her own cigarette.

"Hey honey, would you ever want kids?" Ray asked hesitantly.
Ezra shrugged, "I dunno really. I don't really like kids, but I'd be fine with one as long as we could afford to have one."
"Understandable."

The two turned and headed back inside, Ray feeling hesitant to tell him the news.